Hello Alice: Pixie in the Garden
by pixiecullen
Summary: But there was something heavy in the air, like the feeling I would get on the back of my neck if one of the mean boys at school told me a scary story, but it wasn't scary. It was just important... As if what was about to happen would change everything.
1. I am real!

**Hello Alice: Pixie in the Garden**

**Chapter 1: 'I am real!'**

"Hello?" I asked. I could hear… not someone, but something. I knew something was there. It was like… I could hear everything _around_ them. I could hear birds flying away from them, the wind rushing around them, scurrying of animals away… but nothing in that actual space. It was like trying to see a black hole- seeing everything around it being pulled in, but nothing there. I could hear everything around it, nothing from whatever it was.

But there was something heavy in the air, like the feeling I would get on the back of my neck if one of the mean boys at school told me a scary story, but it wasn't scary. It was just important... As if what was about to happen would change everything. I wasn't too old to dismiss this idea from my head. And my eyes gravitated towards a certain point in the trees, which were thick and filled with a woody mystique that my eyes couldn't penetrate.

"No." I heard a voice say. It was like singing, the voice was high and joyful. It sounded like it was replying to something… but I had just said hello… maybe they weren't talking to me. I had definately imagined it.

I was in a clearing in the forest behind my home. I'd been playing pretend games on my own for about an hour before I heard the- presence. And now, from the dark heavy trees, I saw something peak around the trees. A pale face, so perfect and angelic I gasped.

"See? It's just a girl!" She sang again. She danced over to me, with the grace of a ballerina. I stood wide-eyed, watching. I wasn't afraid, though. I had always read books, as many as I could get my hands on, and I believed firmly that the authors were all secretly writing about their own experiences. Thats why I had always wanted to be an author. I wanted to write about my experiences, when the fairies and princesses and dragons and princes and monsters and oracles chose _me _to have adventures with. So I could only think of one explanation for the tiny girl- a fairy… or a pixie. The thought made my heart leap wonderfully in my chest, and beat faster. I'm sure my cheeks were flushed with excitement and my eyes bright... like hers. She looked as excited as me, and possibly a little daring... as if she was playing a game. Her hair was dark and tufted out of her hair like a halo… and it framed her cherubic face. She was about a foot shorter than me, but her features were quite adult for her size. I hadn't breathed since I saw her, for fear of blowing her away. A real fairy!

She landed right in front of me, and curtsied low to the ground, sweeping down to the floor in a way that reminded me of princesses from my fairytale books. I grinned toothily, unable to believe the dream around me, and tried to mimic her curtsy. Except my foot trapped my skirt so I tipped forward a bit too much and shot back up before I fell. Not nearly the balletic curtsy I had seen. I remembered to breathe, and inhaled a woodsy, feminine scent. Perfect for the fairy… or was she a pixie?

The way her eyes twinkled underneath her spiky lashes, and her cheeky arched eyebrows. Then, as she raised from her curtsy, she tucked her hair behind a slightly pointed ear. Definitely a pixie.

"Good morning, little girl." I tried not to concentrate on her sweet voice. If she called me a girl, she definitely couldn't be one.

"Good morning, pixie." Her face split into a wide smile, and a high laugh escaped from her mouth. But it wasn't an unkind laugh. So I said "I'm Bella."

"I'm Alice."

"Hello Alice." I stuck out my right hand as far as I could. She did the same with her left hand. Somehow the handshake didn't go quite right as we couldn't grasp palm to palm and instead I held the back of her hand and shook it with the dignity of an Ascot Lord. Well, that's how my books said the Pied Piper shook the Mayor's hand.

_"See_?" She said to the trees behind her. I grinned. I _knew_ pixies existed! "Fine." She huffed. "Bella, are you afraid of me?" She asked, looking up at me with wide eyes. I had no choice.

"Of course not." I stuttered, startled by her question. Pixies could be dangerous, but only in a mischievous, naughty way. She flashed me a huge smile again, and any fear I may have had disappeared like the morning dew. (Whatever that was... again, a phrase from a storybook).

"Would you like to play with me?" She asked. I nodded breathlessly. I had just been imagining flying with fairies- now I was _with _one! There were fairies in Forks, and one had chosen me to play with! "What would you like to play, Bella?"

"Fairies." I replied instantly. Then I hesitated, thinking she might be insulted, as a pixie, to play a human game with fairies.

"Sure. You want me to be the fairy, don't you?" She trilled, and again, all my doubts disappeared.

"How do you know?" I asked, genuinely surprised. She winked.

"Pixie magic." She suddenly turned and danced out of the clearing. I ran after her, feeling clumsy and big treading after her light footsteps. I couldn't hear her at all- I ran in the direction I thought I saw her in. For once I didn't stumble and trip over everything, and I felt as free and light as the wind blowing around me. Someone was playing with me. Someone had chosen me to play with. It had never happened before. I had never had playmates like everyone else in school, so I ended up always eating my lunch on the small table for two at the back, then going outside to play in the Alone corner by the bins, imagining fairies and princesses and dragons and monsters and oracles that all wanted to be in the Alone corner with me, singing and playing or fighting and causing trouble that a prince would save me from.

A robin was singing, very close to me, which made me stop. I turned slowly, to see it. As I did, I heard another voice join the song perfectly, complementing the song effortlessly a few octaves above. The sound was beautiful.

I gasped as I registered the sight before me. A robin was sitting on the very edge of a branch about twice my height above me. And Alice was perched on the same branch, reaching out towards it, singing the same song, higher and more beautifully. Her long white finger stroked it's feathers for a moment, and then it flew away.

Alice's head turned towards me too fast for me to see the movement. She was smiling again, a heartbreaking grin that was so infectious I grinned back. Then she put a hand on the branch, and used it to swing herself to the ground in a moment. I blinked in awe.

She took my hand, and ran with me. I couldn't hear the pixie's bare feet racing next to mine… and I found myself trying not to trip as I watched her face, flushed in the exaltation of skipping next to me. Suddenly she skidded, and twirled to a stop, somehow not letting go of my hand, but facing behind me.

"I know- why don't we play chase?" She suggested. I blushed- I hated chase. My clumsy feet always tripped me before I run away from the chaser, and I fell over too much to catch anyone else. If anyone ever asked me to play chase, I would fall for their sweet insincere smiles and agree wholeheartedly before I realised it was just to make fun of me so I would always have to chase, and they would flit around me, mocking me as I stumbled and ran slowly. It would be impossible to catch Alice. I opened my mouth to explain, and she replied as if I'd said exactly what I'd been planning to say.

"That's all right, I'll go slow. It'll be magic- have you ever played chase with a-" She paused for a moment, grinning, "pixie before? Trust me." Her voice continued on the same breath, same mind, in enthusiasm so exciting I had no choice but to agree with her.

"Shut your eyes-" I began to say,

"And count to ten." She finished my sentence, with her eyes shut before I spoke. I hesitated in shock- she knew what I was going to say before I did. But she peeked at me through her lashes. "Don't worry, Bella. Go." I pulled my hand from hers and ran off, my feet sounding incredibly loud in the forest- especially compared with hers. I didn't even hear her approach behind me. Before I knew it, a cool arm wrapped around my waist, and I was swung into the air.

I noticed the trees flying past, and felt myself rushing through the wind, before I could even turn my head to see what was going on. Alice had an arm around my waist, one that kept changing as she threw me lightly across her body as she swung between the trees like a monkey. I gasped again. Was _this_ how pixies flew?

Alice caught my gaze, and whispered in my ear-

"Gotcha."

Then the arm was gone from my waist- but I was flying upwards. What's happened, I thought, before I realised she'd thrown me upwards. My heart plummeted and a sick, frozen feeling rose up my chest as I came rushing back towards the ground. I was going to crash into the ground and hurt myself. Pixies _were_ dangerous.

But, just as I tensed myself for the crash, I was cushioned by strong cool arms. I looked up into Alice's face, and she giggled as she set me back on my feet.

I was speechless. This couldn't be real- a pixie would never pick _me_ to play with. I must be dreaming. But I'd never had a dream this real- or imaginative. I reached out to pinch myself, but the pixie grabbed my hand before I could.

"Don't. I _am_ real!" She sang, and swung herself into the nearest tree, twisting around the trunk like a backwards slide until she reached the top, and the tree swayed precariously. She delicately pinched the blossoming flower that was at the tip of the tree- dropped it and slid back down the trunk with her arms in a moment, just in time to catch it as it span to the ground. I took a step back, dazzled by her grace and feat. She stopped at the foot of the tree, and held her palm open for me to see. I took a few steps to her, and examined the content of her palm. A perfect, delicate pink flower with papery crinkled petals span in her hand like a spinning top. It wasn't even damaged. I looked up to her eyes, bewildered. They were very pale blue, rimmed with the deepest indigo in the rainbow. They were startling, and I gazed wonderingly into their beauty, and how they made her face even less believable.

"Take it, Bella." She laughed, batting her lashes over her blue eyes. I tried to very delicately take the flower from her palm, by tipping her hand into mine. Her skin was cool to my touch, but I could feel the pulse in her wrist as I tipped it gently.

"I need to get _you_ something now." I said, looking around.

"Don't worry about it" She chirped, taking my hand in hers again. She didn't say anything for a minute. "I haven't had a friend before." She whispered softly, suddenly. I raised my eyebrows, shocked.

"You? Really?" I asked.

"I've got my family… but they don't let me-" She broke off for a moment and huffed. "Well, I don't see any girls." She admitted.

I blushed, and before I said what I was going to say, Alice's face split into a huge grin.

"_I'll_ be your friend, Alice." I whispered, and she'd already swept me into a hug, her tiny arms a lot stronger than I would have expected.

"You'll be my best friend, Bella." She whispered in my ear. Her words made me so happy I could feel tears welling in my eyes. A best friend? Me, have a best friend? Someone who had just met me liked me enough to ask me, no, tell me, that I was their best friend? But I swallowed them back, and leaned back out of the hug. I saw with shock that her eyes _were_ full of tears, tears that were brimming out of her eyes and spilling down her cheeks.

"What is it, Alice? What's wrong?" I asked, shocked. I reached out and tentatively wiped the tears away with a shaky hand. What had I done?

"You _will_ be my best friend, Bella." She repeated, her lovely voice cracking under sobs. Somehow she changed the sentence, so it wasn't the same but I didn't understand how. I tried to pull her back to me, but she softly pushed against me, hard enough to push me away. I felt hurt stab at me, but her eyes were filled with apology.

"It's not _my _fault, Bella. I promise. I will see you again- we _will_ be best friends." More tears pulled out of her eyes, and I felt my own rise up again. I realised what she meant. We couldn't be best friends now. And she was leaving. Of course she was. She was a pixie. Fairytale creatures never stay, I thought. Not even in my own games, they always left me alone in the corner with the bins when the bell rang for the end of breaktime. Not even in reality, my pixie best friend was leaving me in the middle of the woods all by myself.

"I'll take you back to your house, Bella." She murmured quietly. How odd, I remember thinking, that she was making it sound like she could protect me. This little pixie... looking after someone like me. It almost made me augh. But then I looked back at her, and her expression made my heart hurt.

I patted her shoulder, at a complete loss for what to say to her, because her heartbroken expression was tearing at my heart, and I didn't know what to say to make it better. She was younger than me, she looked like a very young child, even compared to my five years. But her eyes were older, wiser, and the despair in them was beyond what I knew I could understand. I wished I could do something to help.

She smiled a small smile at me through her tears. Then she held her arms out to me. I frowned, confused.

"I can carry you. I run very fast. I'll show you." She explained, excited through her despair. I nodded, and suddenly her arms swung me onto her tiny back. I towered over her, and felt very heavy on her tiny back, but she held onto me firmly without seeming to use any effort.

The air rushed past me as if I had stuck my hand out of a car window. It was amazing, as much so as swinging through the trees as a monkey. The trees flashing past made my eyes ache, so I squeezed them shut. All too soon Alice stopped, and gently swung me away from her back. I landed very dizzy, and stood reeling for a moment, then fell over backwards. Before I'd even started to fall Alice was behind me, and her arms caught my armpits, like a trust fall, and lowered me to the ground before I had even realised I was falling. She laughed and her bell-like laugh echoed off into the forest. But her laugh died as suddenly as it started, and her head snapped around to behind me. I turned. She'd dropped me back off at my house.

"How did you know-" I started. She shrugged. I got it. She's a pixie. Of course she had powers I hadn't heard of.

She looked at me, tears welling in her eyes again. I opened my palm to reveal the flower she'd given me. Crushed a little by my chubby fist, but mostly intact. And very beautiful. I bit my lip.

"I need to give you something." I decided, looking up at her. She was shaking her head mutely, tears spilling down her elfin face. I got up to comfort her, but she was backing away from me, still shaking her eyes and crying silently. I stopped, hurt. She continued to shake her head, and I got the feeling she wasn't breathing. I turned away towards the house to hide my own tears, and I heard a sob from behind me. I turned back, and briefly felt two cold arms wrapped around my neck. Then she was gone- just flitted out of sight. I tried to hold in my own tears, but it was no use. My chest heaved and a sob erupted from my lips in the jagged breath I took.

Where had she gone? Her emotions were infectious, I felt despair that she had left me, without knowing why she left, or if I would see her again. But she said we _would_ be friends. I _would_ see her again. But her heartbroken expression flashed in front of my eyes again, causing them to pucker up in tears. She had said it to make me feel better. Fairytale creatures wouldn't want to spend time with me.

I stared out at where she had disappeared, in case I might see her again- just a glimpse. Now, alone, my sensible child nature kicked in. I began to doubt that she had even existed. She could have just been a dream. I had no proof I had even seen her. She could just be a product of my imagination.

I tried to conjure her back up again, imagine she was sitting beside me, like I used to do with all my other fairytale creatures. My childish imagination produced her, but I _knew_ it wasn't the same. I couldn't see the details of her. I couldn't see the wind ruffle her halo hair, or imagine the games she came up with. And I _knew_ she wasn't really there. I could still see the grass I was imagining she was sitting on. And I had been so _sure_ she was there before though. She wasn't just a child of my imagination.

Then I remembered my evidence. The flower, lying in my palm. My breath stuttered and my tears stopped as I hesitantly examined the flower. I definitely hadn't picked it myself. She had. That was my proof. And I smiled with my revelation, and took a deep breath in the comfort that my pixie was real. I _would_ see her again, I decided.

Eventually, when it was dark, and I couldn't see into the forest anymore, Charlie came out and saw me, shivering with cold, clutching the flower and staring into the dark.

"Bells? What's wrong?" He asked worriedly, kneeling next to me. My tears had long since dried on my face, and I feared to take my eyes off the spot I saw Alice, lest I miss her.

"Dad?" I asked, keeping my eyes on the dark, "How can I keep this flower forever?"

"Forever? Uh… you could leave it in water, I think. Um…" He contemplated while I frowned.

"I don't want it to go brown and wrinkly like apples and leaves do." I told him.

"Oh, I know! You could press it."

"Press?" I asked doubtfully.

"Well, you put it in the last page of a heavy book. And the flower is dried, and stays exactly as it was when you put it in, except it is crushed paper flat."

I frowned again. "Crushed?" I said. I didn't want it crushed, I wanted it perfect, like Alice had just picked it.

"Yeah, but it stays delicate and beautiful. People say it's because the fairies look after them."

I laughed loudly. Someone like Alice, helping keep crushed flowers pretty in big books? Not a chance.

"What?" Charlie asked.

"Nothing, Dad. I think we should press it. Have you got a heavy book?" I asked.

"Uh… upstairs I think we'll probably have one. Come inside and help me look." I scowled. I couldn't leave, in case Alice came back. "Come on, Bella. It's past dinnertime! You should be in bed." I was appalled to find tears in my eyes again at the thought of leaving where I had seen Alice. I didn't want to separate seeing Alice from myself by going inside to let the day end. Charlie tugged on my arm, and when I didn't respond he picked me up.

"No!" I yelled. "_No!_ I have to _stay_! No- She won't _see_ me! _No, let me_ _go_!" I shrieked, kicking and hitting him uselessly, as the forest bobbed in my vision, and disappeared as he took me inside. When the door I slumped uselessly in his arms, the fight gone and tears running down my face again. I'd never cried so much in my life.

"What's wrong, Bells? Are you ill?" I shook my head, and Charlie went to the kitchen to cook dinner. My nose wrinkled in disgust when the smell of Charlie's cooking reached them. I suddenly remembered my flower, and pulled myself up so I could run to my room. I placed the flower delicately on my desk, and then ran to Charlie's room to sift through the bookshelves for a big, heavy book. My eyes fell on one immediately.

A big, heavy hardback. With a dusty dustcover, and thick old pages. I ran my fingers over the spine to read the title hesitantly.

"The Mer- c-hant of Vee- nice." I whispered, "by Will- i- am Shak- es- pear." I smiled. Perfect.

I took _The Merchant of Venice_ of the shelf, and brought it back to my room with two hands. I flipped it open to the last page, and a shocked cry escaped my lips when I saw a note, written in a perfect hand,

_I'm sorry, Bella. I did not want to leave you, but sometimes the time is just not right. But it will be. I will definitely meet you again, and you will understand everything someday. _

_Lots of love from your best friend-to-be,_

_Alice XXX _

At first I was incredulous- how had she managed to get in? And how did she know I would open this book? She couldn't have the time to put it in every book just in case I read it- she _knew_ I would open this one. Then I remembered her insights into what I was thinking, and the future.

I stroked the page. How long ago had she written this? How long ago had her cool hand brushed this page? It took _ages_ to read, and longer for me to understand what she meant. How could she write so well? And long words like 'definitely'- what did _they_ mean? She was younger than me, how could she write better? But she said she _did_ want to be my friend. She _wasn't_ leaving me. I _would_ see her again. I had more proof of her now. I gently put the note next to the flower, and shut the book onto it. Now it would press the flower, and I had proof of my pixie best friend.

Where should I put it? I decided I should hide it somewhere safe, just in case she didn't want anyone else to find the letter. I hid in underneath my bin, under my desk.

"Bella? Dinner!" Charlie called, and I groaned. I needed to learn how to cook. Both Renee and Charlie were useless.

**OK, so its my new story! I've been absent for a while, but I haven't gone. Theres another story I've been writing, called Portrait and Perception, that I might post soon too. If I'm honest, I was put off fanfiction for a while because I would put everything into my stories for about 3 reviews each time, and it got me down. So if you read this, the only way to get more updates, fast updates, is to review.**

**Who likes young Bella?**

**What makes Alice so strange?**

**What do you think might happen?**

**Here's a preview of the next chapter:**

_I knew it had been her. I just knew. I smiled all over my face and sat there for a while, touching the shoot where Alice had been. I wondered where I was when she had._


	2. Dont look away

**Chapter 2 ****Don't look away**

I didn't want to sleep that night, I remember staying up as long as I could squinting through my window. But I didn't see anything. The moon was hidden by the heavy clouds and because the light in my room was on, I could only see my face in the window unless I pressed my face up against the glass.

I wanted to wake up early, and set my alarm for five o'clock. I felt horrible, but I stumbled down the stairs in my pyjamas with sleepy eyes, put on a big coat and sat on the steps outside. It was a Sunday, so no school. The sun still wasn't out, and I sat there so long the dew on the steps seeped through the coat and my pyjamas and got my bottom wet. I shuffled uncomfortably, but I didn't move my eyes off the woods. I kept imagining that I could see someone in the shadows, but they never moved and I realised they were just leaves. When the sun came out I went out to the clearing again, and called out tentatively,

"Alice?" I felt so scared, for some reason. It was like something was tickling the back of my neck, or someone was walking over my grave. There was some kind of energy in the air, and it frightened me. I kept seeing moving shadows and jumped every time a lone bird sang. Then I saw a definite flash of something move several hundred feet away and had to bite my lip to stop screaming, my feet frozen to the spot.

It couldn't have been Alice, but I kept wondering if maybe Alice's family were angry at me. Eventually the fear got the better of me and I ran home. Magical creatures weren't meant to mix with mortals. I'd never see her again.

My dad was furious with me when I got back. He had been really worried. It was the first of many times. For some reason, I didn't let the fear or sense of defeat beat me. I had never had a best friend either, and exploring the woods, trying to find the tree she climbed- which I never did- or run through the woods and pretend she was with me, singing or laughing in her beautiful voice.

But I never saw her again. I never even caught another glimpse of something, like the first morning. I got more and more depressed, because I was going back to Renee at the end of summer, and I wasn't going to see her again.

About a week before I left I had an idea. I came in from the garden where I had been trying to climb a tree like Alice and had ended up with bark and moss all over my hands. Charlie was watching television, and I went in with my hands behind my back.

"Daddy? Can you come with me to get a present for a friend?" I had never spent my pocket money on anything before, I didn't have anything I wanted, so I had about ten pounds in my purse.

"A friend? In Forks? Who?" He asked. Since I didn't go to school there, I hadn't met anyone who I was close friends with, but I still winced because I didn't have friends at home either.

"My best friend. I'd like to get her a friendship bracelet. She's very special." He screwed his mouth up in confusion but smiled at me.

"Is it her birthday?" That stumped me. When was Alice's birthday? And how was I going to make sure I didn't miss it?

"I don't even know. And I'm her best friend." I must have looked sad or something, because Charlie got up off the sofa to give me an awkward hug and mumble,

"Of course I'll come with you. I'll just get my coat." He never felt worse than when I looked on the verge of tears, he always left me to myself.

In the car, he kept shooting me worried glances.

"Where did you meet your friend?"

"In the forest."

"Is that why you play there so much then?"

I didn't say anything.

"Uh," he cleared his throat, "What is it you want to get her? Where do you want to go?"

"Can we go to Los Angeles?"

"Sure, Bells. They even have a market on Sundays, I think." I smiled. I had in mind what I wanted to get, but I was trying not to think about it in case I couldn't find one.

Sure enough, there was a market, and the ten pounds was hot in my pocket. I shyly glanced at the bric and brac stalls, alongside the stall full of paperbacks that looked like a wind would blow them away. Then I walked past a row that started with a huge stall with an opening covered by purple gauze drapes. I smiled tentatively and pushed them back to walk in.

There were dreamcatchers spinning gently from the ceiling from a breeze coming from the back of the shop, there were delicate sculptures of fairies frozen staring into the realms of their invisible world, perched on petals or crouching under toadstools. I grinned. This was the shop.

There was a counter at the back of jewellery and I approached it tentatively. The jewellery was quite magical and unnatural, like the shop. Light blue feather strands displaying around giant teardrop earrings, large thin silver pendants on a chain of braided fabric… they were beautiful and elegant but too… large.

"Can I help you two?" A lady asked. She had been sitting in the corner so still I didn't even notice her. She was quite large, but her beautiful long purple skirt, long cardigan seemed to camouflage it somehow. Her hair was tied in an effortlessly untidy bun, which left hair dangling over her neck. She wore glasses and beautiful big blue jewellery. I nodded mutely.

"I'd like a friendship bracelet for my friend. But these are a little too… big. She's quite small."

"Okay. Well, if you just come over here I think we have just the thing." She showed me another table that had a beautiful foil tree on it, and each branch had a delicate little bracelet hanging of it. It gave me an idea.

Then I saw the one I wanted. It was perfect. It was a tiny silver bracelet, with six tiny individual flowers all delicately joined like a daisy chain. Opposite the clasp was a little silver plaque with a pair of hands embossed, with the index fingers gently resting on each other. It was perfect. I picked it up. It was cold. Just like Alice.

I looked at the price. Fifteen pounds.

"Don't worry about it, honey, I'll cover it." Charlie said. Just seeing the bracelet, and thinking that my almost phantom friend might someday touch it, was making me emotional, so I just nodded gratefully, smiling at him.

When we got home, I didn't wrap it, but immediately ran out with it. I knew Alice wouldn't be there- I'd long given up on that rationally, but I thought maybe she still came to play there when I wasn't there. I ran through the forest, pretending to be with her again, and I ran far enough that I didn't know where I was.

That shocked me for a moment, but then my eyes adjusted to the sudden darkness, and I realised I did know it. I was standing in front of the tree that had been bursting with blossom that Alice had climbed. The flowers had long gone, and it was just bursting with the last green bloom of leaves before autumn. I hadn't been able to find it for so long…

I hoped that the strange knowledge of the future Alice had seemed to have would see me here so she would come later.

"And find this…" I whispered as I climbed the tree tentatively and reached up to leave the bracelet on a little broken shoot under a branch. Then I jumped off the tree. I looked very carefully the whole way back so I would be able to find the tree again.

The next day I woke up early again so I could run to the tree. I was careful to follow the route I memorized before, and found it quickly. I couldn't see the bracelet from the ground, so I climbed it.

I whooped. It was gone! She'd found it! Either that or a squirrel had taken it away, but I knew it had been her. I just knew. I smiled all over my face and sat there for a while, touching the shoot where Alice had been. I wondered where I was when she had.

I skipped home and Charlie found me grinning when I walked in the door.

"Did you give your friend that bracelet?"

"Yes!" I sang, taking out our breakfast.

"Did she like it?" I wasn't facing him, so he couldn't see the smile fade off my face. I took a deep breath and gave him his breakfast with the best smile I could manage.

"I'm sure she did." He answered himself, not noticing my pause. I sat down next to him. He had given me an idea, somehow. If Alice could see me leave things in the tree… and collect them… maybe I could leave notes for her!

What would I say? I immediately ran upstairs to start.

Eleven screwed up bits of paper and three pencils later I came up with the final draft.

_Deer Alice_

_I hope you liked the braclet I gave you. If you fownd it. _

_I piked it becuse you gave me the flower, and it had all the flowers And the hands ar to remmind you that I am your best frend. I am going bak home nekst saterday._

_Love Bella XOXO_

I wanted to have Charlie check it over but he'd find it odd that I was writing her a letter if he thought I saw her every day. I rewrote it with an adult black pen I found on Charlie's paperwork and wrote it on the paper from the notebook Charlie's friend had given me that, ironically enough, had fairies dancing on the bottom.

I managed to not make any mistakes but I made two splodges where I wasn't sure I'd spelled something right, and a smudge on my signature.

I didn't want to put it in an envelope because we only had big ugly brown ones but in case it rained I put it in the cellophane wrapper of a card Charlie used the day before. Then I ran back downstairs with it.

"Going back already?" Charlie called after me.

I found the tree again, and this time examined it carefully to see if there were any places I could put it so it wouldn't get wet if it rained, which was very likely in Forks. I ran my hands over the bark, then tried climbing it again. I still couldn't find a place and eventually ended tucking it under a slight bridge in an exposed root.

It was gone the next day. I was thrilled, and decided it must be Alice coming to collect them. I wondered who was stopping her coming to meet me. I decided I would move the letters closer to home so I could see if I hid I would spot her collecting them.

But I was worried- it was already Tuesday and I didn't have long to say goodbye.

_Deer Alice,_

_I wud reely like to see you agen befor I leeve on saterday. I have never had a best frend ither and I am going to be so sad to leeve Forks wen I mite not see you agen. _

_I will wate for you in the cleering. _

_Love Bella XOXO_

I put that one in the clearing that night, found it gone in the morning and so I waited all day in the clearing. She didn't show. I waited till it went dark because I didn't want to miss her but I had to write another note.

_Deer Alice,_

_I wondar why you cannot come out to see me. I hope it is not becuse you do not want to. Saterday is now only three days away and you mite not still be here when I come bak or you mite forget me or have a new best frend. _

_Pleese come and say Goodbye._

_Love from your Best Frend, Bella XOXO_

I put that one in a tree almost visible to my house. I was leading the letters back and I was sure she knew, with her way of seeing what was going to happen. I was hoping that she could maybe run to my house quickly if she was already there to collect the letter.

And I stayed up as long as I could that night, so much that I slept in till midday the next day. But she didn't come.

Finally on Friday night I put this letter on the tree in the garden,

_Deer Alice,_

_I am going to go tomorrow and I __reely__ want to see you. I want to have proof that I am not imajining you and magpies are not stealing my letters! _

_I want to be shure I reely have a best frend._

_Best frend love, Bella XOXO_

This time I stayed awake the whole night, sitting on the steps, watching the tree. I jumped at every noise, kept slapping my face, holding my eyelids open and letting my shivering keep me awake. Luckily it didn't rain, and I kept my eyes locked on the tree with the note, the note white in the night so I could watch it.

It was the longest night of my life, but the thought of seeing Alice again, of actually having a friend, kept me through the night.

The sun started lighting the sky, and the letter was still in the tree. I was trying not to blink though my eyelids felt like sandbags, I was sure there would be some kind of trick where I would blink and it would be gone.

"Bella?" It was Charlie. "Did you stay out here all night?"

I didn't answer, using all my energy to continue watching the tree.

"Bella!" He sounded angry and concerned. "You could get seriously ill! Was this something to do with your friend?"

I snapped my head at him, wanting to say 'Yes! I've only seen her once and it was so magical I don't think it was real.' But I knew he wouldn't accept that.

"I just don't want to leave this year." I replied. I saw the pain start to show in his eyes, but then his head snapped up in confusion. I shot around- I'd looked away-

_I'd looked away._

The letter was gone.

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